First week of November 2016

Pajama day at school (and Maxwell participated!)

Playing at the park

Look who is wearing big girl panties!

With Grandma Donna (I think during the day with Britt)

My friend Beth at work

My friend Andrea came to my work and helped about 50 of us make these signs.  I made one with a "G" so I could give it to Maxwell's kinder teacher - Garza.

Crazy hair day at school

It certainly looked crazy :)

Emmalyn joined in the fun too

Playing at the mall during the day with Britt

"cheese face"

Yup, cheese face again.  Those ringlets!  No curling iron needed for this one.

Cuddled up with the kiddos

Maxwell practicing his Kindermusic rhythm cards.  He's doing a great job.

We took the kids to the "Festival at the Switchyard" in downtown Carrolton.  The kids had fun playing games.  (They took turns though because we were standing in a silly line waiting for face painting.  While I'm glad to see my kids now enjoy it, face painting is the WORST line wherever you go.  You spend at least an hour just waiting and then trying to entertain the kids while you wait.  This new trend of total face painting instead of the old way with a ghost on a cheek or a rainbow takes so much time!!!!

Maxwell waited in the stroller more than Emmalyn did

Emmalyn got some flowers (mom's choice) and Maxwell is the Pokemon Pikachu

We took the kids home and left them with a new babysitter - girl down the street and then we headed back to the concert for a free Barenaked Ladies Concert!

First we went out to dinner and while we were eating fireworks went off behind us - it was great show!

The concert was so fun!  The last time we saw these guys was at an Medal Ceremony Concert during the 2002 SLC Olympic games.

Being silly with dad outside of Costco

Loving the smiles and giggles

We had Souper Salad for dinner.  Peter and I used to go all the time when we lived in SLC so it was a little nostalgic.

So, we have been sort of potty training all week.  Emmalyn does great with pooping on the potty but then she will sometimes sit on the potty, do nothing, and then pee on the floor a minute later.  If she's in pull-ups she treats it like a diaper so that choice is out.  It's either panties, nude, or diaper.  She's having multiple accidents a day.  :(  When we went to the festival I just put her in a pull-up because I didn't want to deal with it.  That night with the babysitter she was in diapers but then asked to go potty before going to bed.  The next morning she said she needed to go pee and she actually did so that's a win!

Mornings are good.  Maxwell gets up around 6 am.  Peter will give him cereal or will leave a bowl with cereal in it and put a cup of milk in the fridge so he can do it himself.  Emmalyn wakes around the same time but I try to get her to cuddle with me in bed for an extra half hour.  She immediately asks for milk when she wakes up by saying, "your milk" and I'm still telling her it's empty.  After about a half hour she'll go to the kitchen and Peter will get her cereal.  Both kids watch their iPad while eating and can be independent which means we can get a few more minutes of sleep!mo

First Week of October 2016

Maxwell writing love notes to family we've seen lately like Natalie and Aunt Tammy.

We are excited to be starting a new semester of Kindermusik!  

Emmalyn came with Maxwell and I to his pediatricians to get our flu shots.  She loves going to the doctors - always!

Woo hoo - we did it! (I think this might be his first time getting it in his arm.)

Emmalyn sat outside and enjoy a healthy (ha!) lunch of a McDonalds happy meal while Maxwell was in his Kindermusik class.

Maxwell has moved up to the "young child" class where he will be learning how to read music and how to play a glockenspiel - it's like a xylophone.

Rootbeer floats and a movie at home

Enjoying her candy bracelet from our "boo" stash (see last post)

Maxwell doesn't have homework other than reading but this particular book had instructions on making a treasure map so he had fun doing that.

Helping Momma with the gardening

Maxwell's sort of report card for writing.  Not bad to have all but one marked off when he's only been in class 1 month.  This is the form with the expectations for the whole year.

I had put up Halloween window clings and this pumpkin was destroyed by Emmalyn.  She's not horribly destructive but certainly more destructive than Maxwell is.

Comin at ya!

Peter and I really enjoyed seeing Rent together.  It's been more than a decade.  I really love the music, especially the first half.

Maxwell had spirit week and one of the days was walk to school day.

We didn't walk the whole way but we drove the car across the street into the neighborhood where the school is and walked part of the way.

Emmalyn loved tagging along on the walk with Mom and Dad.

One of the other spirit days was "wear your pajamas to school" which he has NEVER wanted to do and he totally wanted to this year.  That's a big change for him.

Sweetly sleeping during her nap - puppy on one side of her head and turtle on the other.

Britt and I took the kids to the Heard Museum to check out their live action dinosaur exhibit where the dinos move and make noises.

Maxwell was excited to use his map to guide us along.

The first dinosaur we came upon.  The kids all look happier than they really were.  We had some scared kiddos.

She would wave to the dino but only from far away.

Maps - always a win with this age

This one is called the "Utah Raptor"  It's pretty scary looking.

This one spits at you.  They were much more life like than I was expecting.

Playing in the wood town before we left.

Maxwell is doing tennis lessons outside and in the morning this time around.

Emmalyn and I checked out the pumpkin patch after Kindermusik one day.

My little readers

We stopped by Costa Vida to take a selfie in order to try to win free Costa Vida for a year when they opened.  We ended up meeting the owner and he let the kids come in and check out the restaurant and the bubble wall.  He was a really nice guy and we can't wait for them to be open!! (sweet pork salad - yummm)

Emmalyn is awful at picking at her scabs.  She just doesn't leave them alone and so they stay wounded forever.  As much as I don't like bandaids (they are addictive for kids!), we have had to put those on her to get her to leave them alone.
She says, "hip hip hooray" so cutely!
She will add "for?" on the end of questions. For example, "What are you going to work for?"
She can open all the doors in the house now except the back door because it's more sticky and hard to open.  This is both a good and bad thing because you can't keep her out anymore.
Emmalyn can take off her pajamas and diaper by herself in the morning (zipper pjs and shirts/pants pjs).
Twice in the last week she has peed on the rug on the bathroom.  GRRRRR.  One time, it was right after I had her sit on the potty and nothing happened.

Maxwell is now tall enough that he can turn on the lights!  Our lights are high on the walls and so he'd have to get a stool or something to turn them on.